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THE LITTLE BOOK 
OF OUR COUNTRY 

EVA MARCH TAPPAN 



THE LITTLE BOOK 
OF OUR COUNTRY 



BY 

EVA MARCH TAPPAN 

// 



Published for the 

Educational Bureau 

National War Work Council of 

Young Men's Christian Associations, 

by 

Association Press, 

347 Madison Avenue, New York 

1919 



Copyright, 1919, by 
Eva March Tappan 



'EB -8 1919 
!CI.A5il519 



CONTENTS 

I. The Discovery of America 5 

II. Why Colonies Were Founded in 
America 10 

III. How England Came to Rule in 
America 14 

IV. Why There Was Trouble Between 
the Colonies and the King of 
England 22 

V. The Story of the Revolution 28 

VI. How THE United States Formed Its 

Government 40 

VII. The Star-Spangled Banner 44 

VIII. How THE Questions of Boundary 

Were Settled 50 

IX. *'OuR Federal Union: It Must Be 

Preserved" 56 

X. To THE Far West 65 

XI. The United States Becomes A World 

Power 74 

XII. Our Country Today 82 



CHAPTER I 
THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 

Four hundred and fifty years ago no one sus- 
pected that there was such a land as America. 
Europeans knew a Uttle of Africa and of Asia, but 
nothing of the rest of the world. They were par- 
ticularly eager to know more of Asia, .because from 
the East, that is, from Japan, China, and India, 
came many of their luxuries, such as silks, pearls, 
jewelry, perfumes, and spices. These were brought 
to Europe by long and wearisome overland jour- 
neys, and if there was only some way of reaching 
the East by water, this trade would be much 
easier to carry on. 

How to find such a way was a puzzle. Most 
people thought the earth was flat, and that if a 
ship went too near the edge, it would slip over into 
no one knew what. A few learned men believed 
that the earth was round and that by sailing west 
from Europe, one would come to the East, but no 
one was bold enough to push out into the waters 
of the unknown Atlantic. This was full of whirl- 
pools and all sorts of sea monsters, people thought, 
and was the home of evil spirits. Probably the 

5 



6 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

water boiled as one drew near the equator. It is 
no wonder that they hesitated. 

But in Italy there was a man who did not 
hesitate. His name was Christopher Columbus. 
He had been a sailor most of his life, but besides 
sailing he had done a great deal of studying and 
thinking. He was one of the few who believed 
that the world was round, and what was more, he 
was ready to risk his life in a voyage to prove his 
belief and to teach the Christian faith to the people 
of the East. 

But he could not make such a voyage without 
money. He asked the King of Portugal, who told 
him he was a dreamer. Then he asked the sover- 
eigns of Spain. After a long delay. Queen Isabella 
agreed to pay the greater part of the cost of the 
voyage, and Columbus set sail. He had three 
little vessels, the largest only sixty-five feet long, 
and a crew of unwilling sailors, most of whom had 
been forced to go. Many a time they tried to 
make him turn back; more than once they plotted 
to kill him; but he still sailed on. At last, October 
12, 1492, ten weeks after leaving Spain, he came 
to some islands. He believed that they were off 
the coast of India, and as he had reached them by 
sailing west, he named them the West Indies. 



THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 7 

For three months he cruised about among them, 
then he returned to Spain. 

When Columbus reached Spain there was a 
great celebration, for the Spaniards supposed they 
were honoring the man who had discovered a 
shorter route to India. He had opened the way, 
they thought, to a trade with the East which 
would make their country rich and powerful. On 
his next voyage, everybody wanted to go with him 
to find the great cities which they were sure must 
be very near the West Indies. When these could 
not be found, the Spaniards were disappointed and 
angry; and Columbus, who had been bold where 
others feared, who had persevered where others 
yielded, who had pointed out the way to the 
mighty western world, was allowed to die in 
poverty and neglect. 

If the Spaniards had known that the land which 
blocked the way of Columbus was three thousand 
miles wide, they would have been more discouraged 
than ever; but they thought it was perhaps a vast 
group of islands, or that, even if it was a long strip 
of land, there must be somewhere a passageway 
through it. The nations of western Europe were 
all interested in the search for that passageway. 
The ItaHan captains were especially daring and 



8 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

skillfuL One of them, named John Cabot, was 
living in England, and the English king sent him 
to see if he could find it. England did not care to 
interfere with Spain, for at that time Spain waB 
the most powerful country in Europe, therefore 
Cabot sailed directly west and came to land at 
Newfoundland or Cape Breton or possibly Labra- 
dor. Portugal sent out an Italian captain named 
Americus Vespucius. He went to Brazil, and 
when he reached home he published a map of the 
country and an account of his discoveries. No 
one supposed that there was any connection be- 
tween Brazil and the land seen by Columbus and 
by Cabot. It was thought that Americus had dis- 
covered a new continent, and writers on geography 
began to call it America. After a while the name 
spread to include the whole double continent. 
This is how it happened that the country in which 
we live took its name from an Italian who never 
saw it. 

France, too, sent out discoverers, Jacques Cartier 
and others. They sailed up the St. Lawrence 
River; some of them floated down the Mississippi 
almost to the Gulf of Mexico. Spain, however, was 
the most eager explorer. Spaniards visited Florida 
and made long journeys through the Southwest. 



THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 9 

One of the captains sent out by Spain, a Portuguese 
named Magellan, sailed down the eastern coast of 
South America, then up the western, then crossed 
the Pacific Ocean. Magellan himself was killed 
by the natives on the Phihppine Islands, but one 
of his ships went on and so made the first voyage 
around the world. This proved that the earth was 
round and that America was a great new continent. 

Many years after the voyage of John Cabot, an 
Enghshman, Sir Francis Drake, sailed around the 
world, following much the same course as Magellan. 
On the way he landed on the shores of what is now 
California and named the country New Albion. 
Another Englishman, Henry Hudson, sailing in the 
service of Holland, discovered the Hudson River 
and Hudson Bay, which are named for him. 

So it was that within about one hundred years 
after Columbus had shown the way, England, 
Portugal, France, Spain, and Holland all made 
discoveries in the New World, and all established 
claims to some of its territory. 



CHAPTER II 
WHY COLONIES WERE FOUNDED IN AMERICA 

When the year 1600 had come, Europeans had a 
fairly good idea of the shape of South America. 
Their notions of North America were rather hazy, 
although explorers had touched here and there on 
the eastern coast and also on the western. America 
lay between the two oceans, a great mass of un- 
known land, waiting for some one to reveal her 
treasures. People still hoped to find a channel, 
through this land that would afford a shorter way 
to Asia, and they never gave up their search for 
the ''Northwest Passage," as they called it. 

Spain, however, now cared little for any route to 
Asia, for she was getting enormous quantities of 
gold and silver from the New World. She had 
explored Florida, New Mexico, and parts of South 
America, conquering the natives, seizing the 
wealth of their mines, and sending it back to Spain. 
The Spaniards had made two permanent settle- 
ments in what is now the United States. These 
were St. Augustine in Florida and Santa Fe in 
New Mexico. 

Spain was rich, but she was not having an easy 

10 



WHY COLONIES WERE FOUNDED 11 

time. The Spanish king ruled Holland as well as 
Spain, but he treated the Dutch so cruelly that 
they rebelled. The English came to their aid, 
and in 1588 Spain determined to send so mighty a 
fleet against England that she would be com- 
pletely crushed. The fleet was sent, but it was 
overwhelmingly defeated. England was now free 
from all fear of Spain. She could found as many 
colonies in the New World as she chose, and if 
Spain dared to interfere with them, England was 
strong enough to punish her. 

Within one hundred and fifty years after the 
defeat cf Spain, that is, between 1588 and 1733, 
settlements had been made in what are now the 
thirteen states lying between Maine and Florida. 
These are the ''Old Thirteen," and it is in honor of 
them that our flag contains thirteen stripes. 
Eleven of these states were settled by Englishmen. 
New York was settled by the Dutch and Delaware 
by the Swedes; but both of these states soon came 
into the hands of the English. 

Even before America had any European in- 
habitants, it was looked upon as a refuge, as a 
land of freedom, a country in which a man might 
have a chance. Thousands of men in Europe, 
especially in England, were in need of a chance. 



12 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

Landowners were giving up the cultivation of the 
soil for sheep-raising. One man could care for 
many sheep, and there was not work enough for all. 
America was an unknown country, and no one 
could say what treasures of gold and silver might 
be found in its soil. It was certain that there 
was plenty of lumber, fruit, fish, and furbearing 
animals, and there was sassafras, which many 
people of those days regarded as a cure for all 
diseases. Corn and tobacco could easily be raised. 

Wherever discoverers had come to any land, they 
had laid claim to it in the name of their king, and 
now people began to ask their rulers for grants of 
land in the New World. Sometimes a king was 
willing to please a favorite by yielding to his re- 
quest. Sometimes he found it convenient to pay 
his debts in land across the ocean which had cost 
him nothing. Sometimes he gave a grant to a 
trading company, expecting a generous return for 
the gift. 

From time to time colonists set sail for America. 
Many of them were wise and sensible and not 
afraid of work. These men chose good sites for 
their colonies and got on well, as such men can do 
anywhere. Some were lazy and thought it quite 
beneath their dignity to work with their hands. 



WHY COLONIES WERE FOUNDED 13 

They were willing to search for gold, although they 
had no idea where to search, and even if they had 
found it, they did not know how gold ore looked. 
These men failed, as they would have failed 
anywhere. 

Many crossed the ocean to find freedom for the 
practice of their form of religion. Religious 
freedom was a new idea in those days, and for the 
subjects of a king to differ from him in their 
religious belief was looked upon as quite un- 
allowable. Severe laws were passed against all 
such people, and it is no wonder that some of them 
were ready even to leave their homes and come to a 
country where they could find freedom to worship 
God as they thought most pleasing to him and to 
train up their children in the ways that they 
believed right. The trading companies brought 
over some men who were too poor to pay their 
passage and let them pay for it in work. One 
colony was formed of poor debtors, their fare 
being paid by kind-hearted men in England. So 
it was that in one way or another America was to 
every one who came to her shores a land of oppor- 
tunity. A man might make good use of the 
opportunity or he might not, but at least he had 
his chance. 



CHAPTER III 
HOW ENGLAND CAME TO RULE IN AMERICA 

The great double continent lying between the 
oceans had never been without people, for long 
before any Europeans landed on its shores — no one 
knows how long — it was inhabited by many tribes 
of Indians. The ''red men" of the South, that is, 
of Mexico and South America, were partly civil- 
ized. They made beautiful articles of gold and 
silver and understood the use of bronze. They 
wove very fine cloth of cotton and of wool, and they 
built handsome temples. Indians much like them 
live today in New Mexico and Arizona. They 
learned long ago how to build, of brick burned in 
the sun, strong fortresses four and five stories high. 
To protect themselves against the savage Indians 
around them, they used often to build their homes 
high up on cliffs. They cultivated the ground, 
and discovered how to bring water down from the 
mountains in sluices to keep their cornfields from 
being parched in time of drought. 

The Indians with whom the English settlers had 
to do were not even half civihzed. Some of them 
lived in long houses made by covering a frame- 



HOW ENGLAND CAME TO RULE 15 

work with elm bark, but most of the Indians of 
the East lived in round wigwams or huts made of 
the bark of trees or the skins of wild animals. 
' They cultivated the soil somewhat and raised 
beans, squashes, pumpkins, and especially maize, 
which we still call Indian corn. Nuts and fruit 
and rice grew wild; there were fish in the rivers and 
lakes; and there was game in the wilderness. The 
red men made fishhooks of bones; axes, knives, 
and arrowheads they made of stone, although 
some of them had learned how to use copper. 
They made pottery of clay, and light, graceful 
canoes of the bark of the birch and the elm. For 
their clothes they used the skins of wild animals, 
often ornamented with shell beads. They wor- 
shipped the sun, moon, lightning, wind, etc., and 
also their dead ancestors. They had no general 
government; each tribe was independent, and 
their main business was fighting. In war, they 
were savage, and they put their prisoners to death 
with cruel tortures. They never forgot to avenge 
any wrong done them; but on the other hand, they 
never forgot to be grateful for a kindness. 

Such were the neighbors of the colonists. The 
needs of the red men and the white men were 
exactly opposite. The red men wanted forest, so 



16 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

that the wild animals that they killed for food 
and furs would make it their home; but the white 
men wanted land cleared for cultivation. The dif- 
ferent tribes were constantly at war, and when- 
ever the whites gave any assistance to one tribe, 
some other tribe was always ready to resent it. 
Then, too, it was an Indian custom to avenge any 
wrong either upon the man who had done it, or 
upon any member of his tribe, or upon the whole 
tribe, as opportunity might offer. The Indians 
looked upon all white men as belonging to one 
tribe, and if any white man wronged them, they 
were ready to take their revenge upon any other 
white man whom they could reach. It is small 
wonder that there were wars between the white 
men and the Indians, or that, when there was any 
trouble among the different colonies, the Indians 
were ready to take sides or to seize the opportunity 
to kvenge their own wrongs. 

The colonists were no more quarrelsome than 
other people, but they stood firmly by their respec- 
tive countries; and whenever there was war between 
France and England, the French and English 
colonies promptly took it up and began to make 
raids upon one another. The result was that for 
seventy-five years of colonial history, there was 



HOW ENGLAND CAME TO RULE 17 

strife among the colonists more than half the time. 

The main events of the earlier warfare were the 
capture of Nova Scotia and of Louisburg, a French 
fortress on Cape Breton Island, so strong that it 
was called the Gibraltar of America. MiUtiamen 
from New England actually ventured to attack 
this fort, and somehow they succeeded in taking 
it — they themselves hardly understood how. When 
peace was made, Louisburg was returned to France, 
greatly to the wrath of the New Englanders. 

The last of these colonial wars concerned the 
ownership of the very soil upon which the colonists 
had settled, and it is no wonder that they were 
ready to fight. It arose because England, France, 
and Spain all laid claim to land in America, and 
these claims conflicted. John Cabot had landed 
somewhere about the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and 
many English colonies had been founded on the 
Atlantic coast; therefore England claimed whatever 
land there might be north of the Great Lakes and 
also nearly all the coast. Cartier had explored the 
St. Lawrence River, Quebec and Montreal had been 
founded, the French had built a line of forts along 
the Mississippi, and near its mouth they had 
founded New Orleans and other colonies; therefore 
France made a sweeping claim to all the land 



18 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

drained by the two great rivers and their branches. 
Columbus had discovered America and visited 
the West Indies, and Spaniards had conquered 
Mexico, had built St. Augustine in Florida and 
Santa Fe in New Mexico, and had done much 
exploring in the southwestern part of what is now 
the United States; therefore Spain claimed an 
enormous tract of land in that part of the country. 
Here, then, was a great continent, to vast areas of 
which France, England, and Spain had estab- 
lished claims, and not even the claimants them- 
selves knew definitely where the claims began or 
ended. It is little wonder that they disagreed, 
and that at length the disagreements led to war, 
a war that settled the question which nation 
should rule in America. 

The quarrel began about the boundaries of Nova 
Scotia. Then came trouble about the valley of the 
Ohio River, for there the English and the French 
had clashed. The Governor of Virginia sent 
George Washington, a young man of twenty-one 
years, to warn the French that they were on the 
territory of the English. It was no easy journey 
over mountains and through forests in November 
weather. Sometimes it rained, and sometimes it 
snowed. Little creeks had swollen to rivers and 



HOW ENGLAND CAME TO RULE 19 

rivers had overflowed their banks; but the young 

messenger crossed them in the best way he could, 

delivered his message, and set out for home — on 

foot, because he could go through the snow more 

rapidly than his horse. The weather had grown 

even colder and the streams were full of floating 

ice. He was fired upon by Indians; but he made 

the journey and returned to report to the Governor 

that the French had no intention of leaving. The 

I following spring young Washington was sent to 

J the Ohio valley with a body of troops. Then and 

; there began the war which the English colonists 

I called the French and Indian War because they 

had to fight French and Indians. 

Even in war time the colonies were jealous of 
one another and did not always pull together. 
Benjamin Franldin, editor of the Pennsylvania 
Gazette, printed in his paper a picture of a snake 
cut into pieces, the pieces marked with the names 
of the different colonies. Many people believed 
that if a real snake was cut up in this way, it was 
possible for the pieces to unite and the snake to 
live. Therefore Franklin gave his picture the 
motto, ''Unite or die," and he drew up a plan of 
union. The colonists thought this plan was not 
democratic enough, and the King thought it might 



20 THE LITTLE B(JOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

lead to independence. The plan was given up, but 
it made people talk about the advantages of unit- 
ing, and this rude picture was a long step toward 
the union of a few years later. 

For five years the war continued. When the 
year 1759 had come the English formed a bold 
plan for the conquest of the French colony to the 
north, that is, of Canada. The hardest part of the 
undertaking and the most important was the cap- 
ture of Quebec, which was left to the English 
commander, General Wolfe. Quebec stands on a 
lofty cUff which pushes out into the St. Lawrence 
River. The French General, Montcalm, had seen 
to it that three sides of the town were well de- 
fended. On the fourth side was a broad plateau 
called the Plains of Abraham. No trouble could 
come from that direction, Montcalm thought, be- 
cause the only way to reach the Plains was to climb 
up a steep cliff. But behold! One dark night 
General Wolfe landed at the foot of the cliff, and 
silently his men began to climb. Early in the 
morning. General Montcalm was amazed to see 
some five thousand English troops drawn up ready 
for battle. The EngUsh won the day, but both 
the brave young commanders fell. In the follow- 
ing year Montreal was taken, and now the English 



HOW ENGLAND CAME TO RULE 21 

held all Canada. Spain took up arms to help 
France, but was of small assistance, and lost 
Havana and the PhiUppine Islands to the Enghsh. 
The treaty which was made at the close of the 
war is famous for two reasons: first, it settled the 
question whether England or France should rule 
in America, and, second, it transferred from France 
to England the widest area of land that had ever 
passed by treaty from one nation to another. 
France fared badly, for she had to give up every 
foot of her possessions on the continent of North 
America. The city of New Orleans and all the 
French claims west of the Mississippi she gave to 
Spain. Her claims east of that river and city she 
gave to England. Two httle islands in the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence were left to her as shelter for her 
fishermen. Spain then held Florida, which ex- 
tended to the Mississippi River; but she agreed to 
give it up if Havana and the Philippines were re- 
turned to her. So it was that at the end of the 
French and Indian War, England held the con- 
tinent from the Atlantic to the Mississippi; and 
Spain held all from the Mississippi River west- 
ward. There had been some exploration of the 
southwestern part of this territory, but the north- 
western part was totally unknown. 



CHAPTER IV 

WHY THERE WAS TROUBLE BETWEEN THE 
COLONISTS AND THE KING OF ENGLAND 

Some of the American colonies were governed 
by officers appointed by the King, some by ^'pro- 
prietors," or persons to whom the King had given 
grants of land, and some, which held charters, by 
the freemen of those colonies. If the King was 
displeased with a colony founded under a charter, 
he would sometimes take its charter away and 
appoint officers to govern it. In one respect, how- 
ever, the government of all the colonies was alike, 
namely, each one had its legislative assembly, 
whose members were elected by the people, and 
only this assembly could impose taxes upon them. 

The English Parliament made laws for the 
colonies as a whole, and some of these, especially 
the ones affecting their trade and manufactures, 
were liot at all pleasing to these Englishmen in 
America. For instance, all goods brought to the 
colonies or sold by them, or even sold by one 
colony to another, must be carried in either English 
or Colonial vessels. The principal colonial exports 
must be sent to England, even if other countries 

22 



TROUBLE WITH ENGLAND 23 

would pay higher prices for them. If an American 
merchant wished to buy goods in any other Europ- 
ean country, he must have them shipped to Eng- 
land, reloaded on English vessels to be brought to 
America, and must pay duty in both England and 
America. These laws were called ''Navigation 
Acts." 

The English Parliament also forbade manu- 
facturing. The colonists might grow wool, for 
instance, but they must send it to England to be 
made into cloth, and must then buy the cloth of 
English manufacturers. They might smelt iron, 
but it must he sent to England to be made into 
ploughshares and spades and hoes and nails, and 
then resold to them — at a good round profit. 

If any country made such laws for her colonies 
today, we should think that her lawmakers were 
insane; but a century and a half ago these laws 
were looked upon by most people in all countries 
as entirely fair and proper, and they were not 
nearly so severe as the laws which both France 
and Spain made for their colonies. What are 
colonies for, people reasoned, if not to increase the 
trade and prosperity of the mother country? As a 
matter of fact, however, the colonists often man- 
aged to evade such laws, and not only did consid- 



24 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

erable manufacturing but carried on a thriving 
business in smuggling, a common practice on 
European coasts. Moreover, colonists shared in 
the monopoly of the carrying trade from which 
foreign vessels were excluded. 

At the close of the French and Indian War, the 
English King and Parliament decided to tax 
America, to help pay the cost of the war and also 
of soldiers whom they proposed to station in tliis 
country lest France or Spain should try to recover 
their lost American territory. Certain articles were 
to be taxed, and the paper on which deeds, wills, 
and all legal papers were written must bear a 
Government stamp. These stamps were made in 
England, and must be bought by the colonists. 
This was the famous '^Stamp Act." 

The colonists were indignant. "We are no less 
Englishmen because we have crossed the seas," 
they declared, ''and no Parliament has any right 
to tax an Englishman unless he is represented in 
Parliament." "No taxation without representa- 
tion" became the slogan of the day. 

The colonists had one sure weapon, and that was 
to buy no goods made in England. When the 
English manufacturers found that their colonial 
trade was faUing off, they insisted that the Act be 



TROUBLE WITH ENGLAND 25 

repealed. This was done, but the following year 
a new tax was laid upon tea and a few other articles. 
Again the colonists refused to buy, and after a while 
Parliament removed all taxes except one of three 
pence a pound on tea. This was planned by King 
George III and his party, and was regarded by 
them as a briUiant way to ''get even" with the 
obstinate colonials. The Dutch had been smug- 
gling tea into America and selling it cheaper 
than the English tea company. "We will free 
the company from paying duties in England," 
said the King. "The colonists can then buy 
their tea and also pay the tax of three pence a 
pound for less than they can buy tea of the Dutch." 
The King supposed that the colonists would buy 
the tea that cost least. Thus the right to tax them 
would be established, and this was what he wanted. 

The ships of tea crossed the ocean. Some of the 
colonies sent it back, others stored it in damp 
cellars where it soon spoiled. In Boston, a party 
of men disguised as Indians threw the tea into the 
harbor. This is known as the ''Boston Tea 
Party." The King's trick had not succeeded. 

Why was it that the King was so determined to 
tax the colonists, and why could it not all easily 
have been settled by allowing them to send a 



26 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

representative to Parliament? It was because 
exactly the same question of taxation without repre- 
sentation had arisen in England. If Parliament 
yielded to the English in America, it must yield to 
the English in England, and that was quite against 
the wishes of the King and his party. 

This is the way it was. More than two hundred 
years before this time, England had been divided 
into districts, and each district was allowed to 
send rep-esentatives to the House of Commons 
according to the number of its inhabitants. As 
years passed, population changed. Great cities 
grew up in barren districts, and some places that 
had once been fully populated became thinly 
peopled — indeed one district had at last no in- 
habitants at all. The result was that some great 
cities which paid large taxes had not one repre- 
sentative in Parliament; while some of the thinly 
populated districts which paid very small taxes 
had a number of representatives. This was 
grossly unjust, but it suited the politicians, because 
a little bribery in a thinly populated place would 
buy a seat in Parliament. When George III 
came to the throne, he adopted the same plan of 
bribery, for he was determined to have his own 
way and the only method of getting it was to make 



TROUBLE WITH ENGLAND 27 

sure that there was a majority in Parhament of 
men who would support whatever he wished. 
Wilham Pitt, Earl of Chatham, was working to 
bring about a rearrangement of districts to corres- 
pond to the changes in population. This would 
have spoiled the King's plans, and he opposed with 
all his might any such change. That is w^hy George 
III and the *' King's friends," as his followers were 
called, were so obstinately determined to make the 
American colonies yield; while the greatest states- 
men of England and the masses of her people 
looked upon the colonists as fighting their battles. 



CHAPTER V 
THE STORY OF THE REVOLUTION 

To punish Boston for her tea party, the King 
contrived to get ParUament to pass a port bill for- 
bidding any ships to enter or leave that city. It 
did not accomplish much in the way of punish- 
ment, for Marblehead promptly offered Boston 
the free use of her wharves and storehouses, and 
other colonies sent food and drove flocks of sheep 
and cattle into the town. Even far-away South 
Carolina sent shiploads of rice. 

Men from the different colonies had fought side 
by side in the wars. They had learned to know 
one another, and they had the same love of liberty. 
Ten years before this, Virginia had refused to pay 
unjust taxes, and Patrick Henry, an eloquent 
speaker, declared, ''Csesar had his Brutus, Charles I 
his Cromwell, and George HI" — ''Treason, trea- 
son," cried some of his hearers, and he ended by 
saying, ''may profit by their example. If this be 
treason, make the most of it." The colonists now 
held a congress, which resolved that they ought to 
stand by Massachusetts. 

British troops were quartered in Boston, and a 

28 



STORY OF THE REVOLUTION 29 

British man-of-war lay in the harbor. No one 
knew what might happen, but Massachusetts did 
not mean to be caught unprepared. She formed 
companies of ^^minutemen," or men who promised 
to be ready at one minute's notice if they were 
needed. She also hid away powder, shot, guns, 
and cannon in different places of safety. 

The British commander heard that some of these 
munitions were stored in Concord, and sent troops 
off very quietly one evening to get possession of 
them. But the colonists were not caught napping. 
They hung two lanterns in the belfry of the North 
Church as a signal to Paul Revere, who was waiting 
some distance away, and he galloped through the 
villages and the country, crying out in the dark- 
ness, ''The British regulars are out!" 

The regulars had planned not only to seize the 
stores, but also to arrest John H-ancock and 
Samuel Adams, leaders of the patriots; but on 
reaching Lexington, they found that the two men 
had escaped. Some seventy minutemen, how- 
ever, stood waiting. ''Throw down your arms and 
disperse, you rebels!" shouted the British com- 
mander. They did not disperse, and the troops 
fired , killing eight minutemen . They then marched 
to Concord and destroyed what stores they could 



30 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

find there. By this time the news had spread, and 
angry colonists, exceedingly good marksmen, were 
everywhere, especially on the road to Boston, sta- 
tioned behind barns and stone walls. The soldiers 
ran foi* their lives and with the aid of fresh troops 
reached Boston. This little skirmish of a few 
hundred men w^as the beginning of the American 
Revolution. It took place on April 19, 1775, and 
Boston still celebrates the anniversary of the day. 
Longfellow has told the whole story in his ^'Ride 
of Paul Revere." 

The colonists had not only spilled the King's tea, 
but they had fired upon his troops. People dif- 
fered in their ideas then just as much as they do 
now. Some upheld the King and thought it wrong 
to object to anything that he did. Others felt 
that they were only standing fov their just rights. 
Another congress was held, and John Hancock 
was made its president. Thomas Jefferson, a 
young lawyer from Virginia, was present. He was 
not given to making speeches, but he was a keen 
student of law and knew how to use his pen. 

War was upon the colonists, and a commander- 
in-chief must be appointed. George Washington 
of Virginia was chosen, the young man who had 
carried the message to the French in the Ohio 



STORY OF THE REVOLUTION 31 

valley. He was now a wealthy planter of forty- 
three years, devoted to the service of his country. 
He set out for Boston, to take command of the 
militia and all other troops that could be raised to 
defend the country. Traveling was slow in those 
times, and a great event came to pass more than 
two weeks before he reached Boston. 

This event was the Battle of Bunker Hill. 
The colonists had taken a position at the top of a 
hill. Three times the British charged up the hill, 
and three times they were repulsed. But the 
powder of the colonists gave out, and they had no 
bayonets. Of course they had to retreat, but 
they retreated triumphantly, for they, the un- 
trained militiamen, had three times repulsed the 
British regulars. 

Washington took command of the army in 
Cambridge, near Boston. It was an army with- 
out uniforms, powder, cannon, or any arrange- 
ments for providing food. The men knew so little 
of the duties of a soldier that when an order was 
given they were quite inclined to suggest some 
different plan of their own. The first thing for 
Washington to do was to train his army, and one 
winter w^as a short time for this. Early in the 
following spring, however, he suddenly pretended 



32 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

to be about to attack the British troops in Boston. 
While they were in some confusion, he sUpped 
around to a hill on the other side of the city. If 
the British stayed in Boston they would be bom- 
barded; therefore they went aboard their ships and 
sailed to Halifax, leaving a good supply of stores 
and ammunition behind them. 

Thus far few of the colonists had thought of such 
a thing as separating from England. They were 
fighting for their rights, not for separation. Wash- 
ington himself said that when he took command of 
the army, he "abhorred the idea of independence." 
They looked upon George III as their King, and 
Congress had sent him a petition in the hope that 
he would right their wrongs. 

The King, however, was bent upon having his 
own way, not upon righting anybody's wrongs, and 
he would not even look at their petition. On the 
contrary, he did one thing that aroused the stern 
anger of the colonists more than anything else. 
Few Englishmen would take up arms against their 
own countrymen, and King George now hired 
German soldiers to cross the ocean and subdue his 
subjects. Before this, the colonists had looked 
upon their disagreement with the King as a sort of 
family quarrel which would right itself in the end, 



STORY OF THE REVOLUTION 33 

but this hiring soldiers from a foreign country to 
cross the ocean and fight them was a different 
matter. The King was treating them like enemies, 
and they could not remain his subjects. Congress 
appointed Thomas Jefferson and four others to 
prepare a Declaration of Independence. 

This was done and the Declaration was signed 
by representatives of the colonies. To put one's 
name to this paper took a vast amount of courage. 
If the King won, the signers would be looked upon 
as leaders of a rebellion and would be promptly 
hanged. "We must all hang together, or we shall 
hang separately," declared the witty Benjamin 
Franldin. As Charles Carroll took up the pen to 
write his name, some one said, "You are in no 
danger, for there are so many Carrolls that the 
King could never find you." "I'll show him," 
said Carroll, and after his name he wrote "of 
Carrollton." "John Bull can read my name with- 
out spectacles," said John Hancock, and he wrote 
his name so boldly that it can be read farther away 
than any other. 

Up to this time, Massachusetts had been the 
scene of the war, but the British now planned to 
take New York City, the Hudson River, and Lake 
Champlain. This would separate the Middle and 



34 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

Southern States from New England, and each 
part of the country could then be conquered separ- 
ately. Also it would prevent the Americans from 
making any attack upon Canada by the easy way 
of the river and the lake. It was an excellent 
plan — if only it could have been carried out. 

The British took New York, and Washington 
had to retreat across New Jersey. But now the 
famous soldiers in Europe began to open their ; 
eyes, for this Virginia planter, whose military edu- 
cation had come from his own study and from 
fighting Indians, was managing his retreat in a 
masterly fashion that won their interest and 
admiration. 

This untaught general was always doing some 
'unexpected thing. He had to retreat into Penn- 
sylvania, but when Christmas came and the 
German troops in Trenton were carousing, he 
suddenly pushed across the Delaware River in the 
midst of cakes of floating ice and captured the 
merrymakers together with a goodly quantity of 
military supplies. In ways like this, Washington 
and the other American generals harassed the 
troops of King George and managed affairs with 
such skill that their commander had to admit 
that his plan for separating New England from 



STORY OF THE REVOLUTION 35 

New York had failed and to surrender his forces 
— about one third of all the King's troops in 
America — to one of Washington's generals at 
Saratoga. 

In spite of all that the Americans could do, the 
British took possession of Philadelphia. Wash- 
ington was not strong enough to drive them away, 
and therefore he went into winter quarters at 
Valley Forge, about twenty miles from Phila- 
delphia, where he could keep close watch upon 
them. It was a cold, gloomy place. His men had 
hardly clothes enough to cover themselves. Many 
went barefooted for lack of shoes. Their log huts 
were icy cold. Washington fed them at his own 
expense, and Mrs. Washington spent much time 
with him in the dreary valley, doing her best to 
cheer and encourage the men. 

Help was coming and signs of it had already 
appeared. Several officers from European armies 
had come to aid the Americans, not as representing 
their countries, but as individuals. They came 
from Poland, from Prussia, and from France. 
The best loved of them all and dearest to the 
heart of Washington was the Marquis de Lafayette, 
a wealthy French nobleman. He was only nine- 
teen years old, and one of the British generals called 



36 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

him ''the boy," but he proved to be an excellent 
general. 

Still, no country had come out boldly on the 
side of the Americans. The one in which they had 
most hope was France, and Franklin had been sent 
to France long before in order to seek for aid. 
But France hesitated, for why should she join a 
cause which was sure to lose? After the plan to cut 
New England from New York had failed, the case 
was different, and the gloom of Valley Forge was 
brightened by the promise of France to lend 
troops and money and to recognize the United 
States as an independent nation. 

This did not suit King George, so he declared 
war on France and began to try to bring the 
colonists to peace. He yielded all questions of 
taxation, and he was more than willing that 
representatives from America should sit in Parlia- 
ment. But it was too late, and for three years 
more the war went on. 

Not all the fighting was done on land by any 
means. Privateers sailed up and down the coast 
to capture or destroy the ships of the enemy. John 
Paul Jones, one of these privateers, was bold 
enough to attack vessels just off the English coast 
and amazed the English navy by capturing them. 



STORY OF THE REVOLUTION 37 

Meanwhile, a young surveyor from Kentucky, 
George Rogers Clark, collected a company of back- 
woodsmen and drove the British out of the country 
north of the Ohio River, a district which was later 
known as the Northwest Territory. 

The British now set out to conquer the South. 
They had tried once before and failed, but this 
time they took Savannah and overcame Georgia 
and South Carolina. It was not easy work 
by any means, for they were opposed not only 
by troops, but by Marion, "the Swamp Fox," 
and others who hid in forests and swamps and 
dashed out upon the enemy in just the places 
where they were not expected. 

Washington sent General Greene to the South 
with some interesting orders. In obedience to 
them, Greene soon began to retreat toward the 
North. The British General Cornwallis supposed 
himself to be pursuing Greene, but all the while 
Greene was leading him onward. Somehow Corn- 
wallis never could catch up with Greene and when 
he came near Yorktown in Virginia he stopped. 
Reinforcements would soon come, he thought, and 
then he could end this troublesome war and go 
home to England. Instead of that, the French 
fleet blockaded him by sea, and Washington and 



38 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

Lafayette with American and French soldiers 
hemmed him in by land. Cornwallis was a 
brave man, but he was helpless. He was obliged 
to surrender, while the band played an old song 
called 'The World Turned Upside Down," and 
one October morning, in 1781, the watchman in 
Philadelphia called out, 'Tast three o'clock, and 
Cornwalhs is taken!" There was no more sleep 
for any one that morning, for bells rang, bonfires 
blazed, people marched in procession singing 
patriotic songs, and houses were illuminated as 
brilliantly as candles would permit. 

The treaty of peace was signed in 1783, and the 
United States of America now held all the territory 
between Canada on the north, the Atlantic on the 
east, Florida on the south, and the Mississippi 
River on the w^st. Spain had entered the war 
against England, hoping to recover her former 
territory in America, but all that she received was 
Florida. 

George III was ruler of the little German 
province of Hanover as well as King of England, 
and when he learned of Cornwallis's surrender he 
at first declared that he would abdicate the English 
throne and go to Hanover. Before long, however, 
he changed his mind. 



STORY OF THE REVOLUTION 39 

Washington refused any payment for his services 
and asked only that his expenses and what he had 
spent to pay and feed his troops should be re- 
funded to him whenever convenient for the country. 
He bade farewell to his fellow soldiers and re- 
turned to his home at Mount Vernon, free for the 
rest of his days, as he supposed, from the cares and 
responsibilities of pubUc life. 



CHAPTER VI 

HOW THE UNITED STATES FORMED ITS 
GOVERNMENT 

The Revolution was over, and the colonies were 
now called the United States of America, but, 
although they were states, they were anything but 
united. Each one was looking out for its own 
interests and treated the others as if they were 
foreign countries. For instance, when a New 
Jersey man sent fruit or vegetables into New 
York or Philadelphia, he had to pay duty. New 
Jersey got her revenge by making New York pay 
a yearly tax of nearly $2000 on a lighthouse which 
New York had built on the New Jersey shore. 
Each state had its own paper money, but no state 
would accept that of the others. 

Congress could make war and peace, and it could 
talk, but it had little power to do anything else. 
It could ask the states to pay taxes, but if they 
did not choose to pay, it could do nothing further. 
More than once some state threatened to pay 
nothing toward Government expenses unless she 
could have her own way in some special matter. 
In regard to trade, some of the states actually set 

40 



HOW GOVERNMENT ^^■AS FORMED 41 

up for themselves and tried to make their own 
treaties with foreign countries. If a man in one 
state did not choose to pay a debt to a man in 
another state, there was no power to compel him 
to pay it. It is small wonder that some of the 
wise folk of Europe laughed and said, "That 
Union will never last. The colonies will soon be 
asking to be back under English rule." 

No one realizes what a country without a strong 
central government fairly representing the people 
would be until he has tried it. The Americans 
soon found that their Government was not strong 
enough to protect them in their just rights and to 
keep order in the land. Moreover, they had 
fought seven years for a fair representation, and 
they were not getting it . Each state sent one 
member to Congress and had one vote. As the 
states were very unequal in size, one member 
would represent perhaps 60,000 people and an- 
other five times as many. This was grossly unjust, 
and the people at length took the matter in hand. 
They sent delegates to a convention held in Phila- 
delphia, and in that city was written the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. 

The Constitution divided the Government into 
three parts: first, the legislative or law-making 



42 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

power, that is^ Congress; second, the judicial, or 
law-interpreting power, that is, the Supreme 
Court; and third, the executive, or law-executing 
power, that is, the President. Only Congress, 
then, could make a law; if there was any doubt 
about its meaning, the Supreme Court would 
decide; and the President, made commander-in- 
chief of the army and navy, must see that the law 
was executed. The matter of representation was 
most justly settled by allowing two senators to 
every state, and representatives in proportion to 
the number of its inhabitants. 

Washington had hoped to spend the rest of his 
life in his home at Mount Vernon, but he yielded to 
the wishes of his country and became its first 
President. There was need of wisdom and a 
strong hand, for more than one difficulty must be 
met and overcome. No country can wage war 
without money, and the new republic had bor- 
rowed money both of its own citizens and of 
European countries. Alexander Hamilton was 
then Secretary of the Treasury, and he took the 
stand that the Government ought to pay not only 
this money but also what the separate states had 
borrowed, since it was all for war expenses. This 
was done, and credit, as valuable to a country as 



HOW GOVERNMENT WAS FORMED 43 

to a man of business, was firmly established. 

To raise this money Hamilton advised that on 
C(;rtain imported goods duty should be collected. 
This would not only pay our war debts and provide 
funds to carry on the Government, but it would 
raise the price of these goods in America, and so 
"protect" our manufacturers, that is, make it 
possible for them to compete with the low wages 
paid to workmen in Europe. Another plan of 
Hamilton's was the establishment of a Federal 
Bank, whose bills would be -accepted in every state. 

Washington refused a third term. In 1797, he 
made his strong, wise, far-seeing "Farewell Ad- 
dress" and returned to liis beloved Mount Vernon. 
Two years later he died. The words of his eulogy, 
"First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of 
his countrymen," have been so often repeated that 
they have lost their force; but think of them as if 
heard for the first time. Remember that they 
were literally true. Has there ever been another 
man of whom they could be said? 



CHAPTER VII 

THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER 

We had had fully as much war as we wanted, but 
soon after the close of Washington's second term 
we had to meet our old friend France in battle. 
She was angry because we would not join her in a 
war against England, and her agents declarec 
that if we did not pay a large bribe we should be 
attacked. ^'Millions for defense, but not one 
cent for tribute," was our reply. Washington was 
again called upon to head the army, but the fight- 
ing was all on the sea, and soon ended with a peace « 
It was in this war that a new song, ^'Hail Colum- 
bia, '^ became popular. 

Before the second war with England took place ^ 
our country suddenly became larger by nearty 
1,000,000 square miles. The "Province of Louis- 
iana," which included Louisiana and a wide sweep 
of land to the northwest, had passed from Spain to 
France. France was a strong power and might 
be able to shut us from the mouth of the Mississippi 
River, or even to found a New France in America. 
But Napoleon, Emperor of France, expected war 
with England and he began to fear that he could not 

44 



THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER 45 

hold Louisiana even if he succeeded in colonizing it. 
Therefore he offered it to the United States at a 
rate of about fifteen dollars a square mile. Thomas 
Jefferson, who was then President, hastened to 
close the bargain; and now the United States was 
twice as large as before, and the people who had 
pushed out beyond the Mississippi River and 
made their homes in the wilderness no longer 
feared that they might fall under the rule of any 
foreign power. 

Our second war with England came about be- 
cause of some of her acts that aroused our wrath. 
England — and France, too — interfered with our 
commerce by seizing our vessels on the open sea; 
but England's fashion of taking, or ''impressing," 
any sailors whom she might claim as Englishmen 
and forcing them into her navy made Americans 
especially indignant. We were not at all ready to 
fight, but we declared war. We failed in our cam- 
paigns in Canada, but we amazed England by 
winning twelve battles out of fifteen on the sea. 
One of the most famous encounters was between 
the American vessel ''Chesapeake" and the British 
"Shannon." Captain Lawrence of the "Chesa- 
peake" fell mortally wounded. His last words, 
"Don't give up the ship!" are the war-cry of the 



4(5 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

American navy. These words were on Commo- 
dore Perry's flag when he sailed out on Lake Erie 
in his Httle fleet built of unseasoned timber — and 
won the day. He sent back his report of the battle 
scribbled on a bit of paper from a letter, but it 
received a warm welcome, for it said, *^We have met 
the enemy, and they are ours." 

It was during this war that the city of Wash- 
ington was burned and President Madison and his 
wife had to flee from the White House. A httle 
later, Francis Scott Key of Baltimore was on board 
a British vessel as an envoy when the bombard- 
ment of Fort McHenry began. In the darkness 
he watched the bombs, waiting anxiously for ''the 
dawn's early light" to mrke sure whether "the 
flag was still there." On the back of a letter he 
wrote a poem which tells the story of the night, 
and that poem is 'The Star-Spangled Banner." 

In the last battle of the war, that of New 
Orleans, the Americans were victorious; but it was 
a needless battle, for peace had been made twc 
weeks earlier. News traveled slowly in those 
days. 

The United States was young, but growing 
rapidly. Not long after the second war with 
England, we bought Floricla of Spain. Our west- 



THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER 47 

em lands were fast increasing in value because so 
many people were moving into Kentucky, Tennes- 
see, the states north of the Ohio River, and even 
into the country on the western side of the Miss- 
issippi River, which was then the 'Tar West." 
There was a constant procession of these emigrants, 
rumbling along in great clumsy wagons covered 
with canvas. Cattle and horses and sheep were 
often driven behind the wagons, frequently by 
bands of slaves. 

The matter of slavery was beginning to make 
trouble. At first all the colonies held slaves, but 
slavery did not pay on the small farms of the 
North, while it did pay on the Southern planta- 
tions, especially after the invention of the cotton- 
gin, in 1793, made cotton growing profitable. 
Moreover, there was almost from the first a feeling 
against it in the North, and even before the close 
of the Revolution several of the Northern States 
passed laws forbidding slaveholding. 

So many people moved to the westward that soon 
new states were formed. Missouri asked to be 
admitted into the Union. But should she come 
in as a slave state or a free state? In the Senate, the 
members were equally divided, half for slavery and 
half against it. A new state would give a majority 



48 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

to one side, and no laws would be permitted to pass 
that did not favor that side. Neither party would 
yield, and it looked as if the irresistible force had 
at last met the immovable body. 

It chanced, however, that Maine, too, was ready 
to be admitted as a state. This gave an oppor- 
tunity to make a bargain. The pro-slavery 
senators agreed to vote for jbhe admission of Maine 
as a free state provided the anti-slavery senators 
would agree to vote for the admission of Missouri 
as a slave state. This was the famous ''Missouri 
Compromise." It did no permanent good, for the 
Senate was still evenly divided, but it put off the 
break for a number of years. 

The real difficulty was not only about slavery, 
but also about the wishes of North and South, for 
these wishes were in some ways exactly opposite. 
The North had many manufactories, and there- 
fore wanted a duty on imported goods; while the 
South, which manufactured little, wanted to buy 
imported articles as cheaply as possible. Again, 
Northern manufacturers wanted to sell their goods 
to the settlers in the "Far West," and so did all 
they could to induce the Government to build 
canals and deepen waterways in order to make 
easy routes to the West. The South cared nothing 



THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER 49 

about carrying goods to the West, and objected to 
paying taxes for the benefit of the North. It is 
no wonder that North and South disagreed. 



CHAPTER VIII 

HOW THE QUESTIONS OF BOUNDARY 
WERE SETTLED 

This matter of slavery or no slavery, or rather, 
of the differing wishes of North and South, came 
to the front whenever a new state asked for admit- 
tance. Sometimes it was complicated with other 
questions. What is now Texas had been found to 
be a rich and fertile country, and some 20,000 
Americans had made it their home. It was under 
Mexican rule, but Mexico was glad to have the 
country developed and had willingly granted a 
large tract of land. 

After a while, however, the Americans became 
too independent to please the Mexican Govern- 
ment, and it was made clear that they were not 
especially welcome. At this the settlers took up 
their guns and there was warfare. The Americans 
won the day, drove away the Mexican forces, and 
established the ''Republic of Texas.'' They asked 
to be admitted to the Union as a slave state. 
Then the North took alarm. This new republic 
could easily be cut up into eight or ten states, each 
of which would have two votes in the Senate, and 

50 



HOW BOUNDARIES WERE SETTLED ol 

the Senate would then be in the hands of slave- 
holders. For this reason, several years passed 
before Texas became a state; she was finally ad- 
mitted in 1845. Her flag contained a single star, 
and that is why she was called t-ie "Lone Star 
State.'' 

The trouble with Mexico set people to t! inking 
about other territory whose ownership v/as un- 
certain, and there was a general desire to have 
boundary questions settled. One of tkese con- 
cerned the northern part of Maine. When that 
line had been drawn, the question of the boundary 
of the Oregon countrj^, which is now Oregon, 
Washington, and British Columbia, was taken up. 
Should latitude ^46° or 54° 40' be the northwest 
boundary of the United States? England said it 
ought to be 46° because Sir Francis Drake had 
discovered the land and three English explorers 
had visited it. The United States claimed all 
territory up to 54° 40' because soon after the Revo- 
lution an American had discovered the Columbia 
River and an American expedition had explored 
the stream, and — strongest claim of all — some six 
thousand Americans had made settlements in that 
country. Naturally, they insisted upon knowing 
whether they were living under English or Ameri- 



52 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

can rule. The whole United States became inter- 
ested, and the people who were ready to seize a 
gun to settle every dispute filled the land with 
cries of 'Tifty-four forty or fight!" There proved 
to be no need of fighting, for commissioners from 
England and the United States settled the matter 
by a compromise which drew the line at 49°. 

A third question of boundary was not settled so 
peaceably. Mexico had never admitted the inde- 
pendence of Texas or the right of the United States 
to annex the Texan country; and she declared that 
in any case, Texas was bounded by the Nueces 
River, while the Texans insisted that it extended 
to the Rio Grande. War with Mexico followed, 
but it was not a war in which the^ whole country 
was united, for the larger Texas might be, the 
stronger would be the slave power. ''Remember 
the Alamo!" was the battle-cry of the war, because 
in the struggle between Texas and Mexico a little 
group of Americans long held a fort named the 
Alamo against ten times their number. When at 
last they had to yield only six were left alive; and 
these six, after being promised safety, were brutally 
murdered by the Mexicans. Soon, however, the 
American troops made a victorious march into the 
City of Mexico and that really ended the war. 



HOW BOUNDARIES WERE SETTLED 53 

Mexico still owned more than half a million 
square miles in what is now the United States. 
Part of this was the present state of California. 
Many thousand Indians lived in that part of the 
country. The Spanish priests had gathered them 
into settlements called missions, and had taught 
them the Christian faith, agriculture, and civilized 
ways of living. After a while, the Mexican form 
of government changed, and the missions declined. 

American settlers had made their way to Cali- 
fornia, and when the Mexican War broke out, 
they began to fear lest the Mexicans should attack 
them. With the help of an American exploring 
expedition and a frigate off the coast, the Ameri- 
cans held the state. According to the treaty made 
at the close of the war, we kept all land north of the 
Rio Grande and Gila rivers, paying Mexico nearly 
$36,000,000, or about ten cents an acre. So it 
was that by the Louisiana Purchase from France, 
the Florida Purchase from Spain, the Texan An- 
nexation, and the Mexican Cessions, the United 
States, which began as a few little colonies on the 
Atlantic Coast, spread across the continent to the 
Pacific Ocean and far south into the lands bordering 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

Only a few days before the treaty was signed, 



54 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

gold was discovered in a California stream. Now 
began a frantic stampede from all parts of the 
country to California. Men on horseback, or in 
the great canvas-covered wagons known as prairie 
schooners, or on foot, made a mad rush for the 
land of gold. Many paid their last cent for a 
passage by sea, feeling sure that they could soon 
fill their empty pockets in the West. So many 
thousands went that in less than three years after 
this discovery, California had population enough 
to be admitted as a state. 

With every gain of territory the question '' Slav- 
ery or no slavery?" became more and more promi- 
nent. Often *' compromises" were' made in an at- 
tempt to satisfy both North and South. For 
instance, when California was admitted as a free 
state — to please the North — the Fugitive Slave Law 
was passed — to please the South . This required even 
the free states to seize and return to slavery any 
slave who might have escaped to their territory. 
The North was indignant, and some states declared 
it unlawful to assist in slave-catching. A system 
called the ' 'Underground Railroad" was formed in 
parts of the North on the way to Canada, by which 
an escaped slave could be passed from one house to 
another until he was safelv over the Canadian line . 



HOW BOUNDARIES WERE SETTLED 55' 

The South was equally aroused by the attempt 
of John Brown at Harper's Ferry to lead the 
Negroes of the South to free themselves. The 
wrath of both sides was fanned to a flame by the 
appearance of Mrs. Stowe's ''Uncle Tom's Cabin," 
picturing slavery from a Northern point of view. 

In Washington's ' 'Farewell Address" he had 
warned Americans that unity of government was 
the support of that liberty which Americans 
prized so highly. Nevertheless, there had been 
more than once, and from different parts of the 
country, threats of separation. 'Tf remaining 
in the Union is an injury to a state, that state has 
a right to secede," declared the South. "The 
secession of a state would weaken and otherwise 
injure the whole Union; therefore no state has a 
right to secede," declared the North. 'T believe 
this Government cannot permanently endure half 
slave and half free — I do not expect the house to 
fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided," 
said a tall, thoughtful man in Illinois whose name 
was Abraham Lincoln. Two years later, this man 
became President of the United States — the great, 
patient, steadfast President who was to save the 
Union and to bring slavery to an end. 



CHAPTER IX 
''OUR FEDERAL UNION. IT MUST BE PRESERVED" 

The Republican party, which elected Lincoln, 
was determined that slavery should not spread, 
but had no idea of interfering with it where it 
already existed. The South, however, feared 
that there would be interference, and more than 
two months before the new President was in- 
augurated, South Carolina declared herself no 
longer a member of the Union. Six other Southern 
states followed her lead, and formed the ''Con- 
federate States of America." According to this 
Confederation, slavery was to be recognized and 
the protective tariff was to be abohshed. Jefferson 
Davis of Mississippi was elected President of the 
Confederacy. 

There was a great deal of Government property 
in the South. On South Carolina soil, for instance, 
there were post offices, lighthouses, and other 
buildings, and in the harbor were Fort Moultrie 
and Fort Sumter. ''The land on which these stand 
is ours," declared the Confederacy, ''but we are 
ready to pay for the buildings," and agents were 
sent to Washington to make this arrangement. 

56 



OUR FEDERAL UNION 57 

Major Anderson, who commanded at Fort 
Moultrie, was convinced that these agents would 
not succeed. He found that troops were being- 
brought together and drilled; and he spiked the guns 
of Fort Moultrie and moved his men to Fort 
Sumter, which could be defended more easily in 
case of an attack. Here they were bombarded 
by the Confederate forces until much of the fort 
had been burned, the rest of it was ablaze, and no 
food except salt pork remained. Then, and not 
till then. Major Anderson surrendered. This was 
the beginning of the Civil War. 

Over the country flashed the word, "The flag 
of our country has been fired upon!" and the 
North rose like one man. ''Why did you volun- 
teer?" a veteran of this war was asked. ''Why? 
Why?" he repeated. "It was in the air. I could 
no more help going than I could help breathing." 
Before long, Virginia and all the states south of 
her southern boundary had joined the Confedera- 
tion. The people of the "Border States," Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, were 
divided; some joined the Union ranks, others the 
Confederate. West Virginia and all other states 
east of the Mississippi, together with Kansas, 
California, and Oregon, stood by the Union. The 



58 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

rest of the country was then made up of terri- 
tories. Many people in Virginia and the Border 
States took the Southern side, not because they 
beUeved in slavery, but because they denied the 
right of the Federal Government to "coerce" the 
states that had first seceded into remaining in the 
Union against their will. 

The ''front" in 1861 was the northern boundary 
of the Confederate States, and extended from Vir- 
ginia into Missouri. Each army aimed at captur- 
ing the capital of the other. Between these two 
capitals, Washington and Richmond, was a Con- 
federate force and, not far from Washington was 
fought the Battle of Bull Run. The Union troops 
were routed; but this was such a surprise to the 
North that it aroused a stronger determination to 
win than a victory would have done. 

The Confederates wished to push up North as 
far as possible. The Union forces aimed at 
driving the Confederates back and also at cutting 
through the Confederate States and separating 
them so that one part could not come to the help 
of the other. That is why an army was sent along 
the northern boundary of Tennessee to the Missis- 
sippi River, to secure control of that river. The 
commander of this army was General Grant. He 



OUR FEDERAL UNION 59 

had grown up very simply on a farm, had made 
his way to West Point, and had served in the 
Mexican War. Then he had left the army and 
had tried one thing after another, not succeeding 
remarkably well in anything. He did not like 
war, but of course when need came he offered his 
services to the Government, and it was soon seen 
that he had a way of carrying through whatever 
he undertook. He now pushed on to the Missis- 
sippi River, then to the South beyond the northern 
boundary of Louisiana. 

Meanwhile, the Union troops in the East had 
been trying to reach Richmond, but had been 
driven back by General Lee, commander-in-chief 
of the Confederate forces. Lee was a West Point 
graduate and had also served in Mexico. He was 
recognized as a soldier of great ability, and at the 
breaking out of the war he had been asked to take 
command of the Union army. Never was a man 
in a more difficult position. His native state, 
Virginia, had seceded, and Lee decided to stand 
by Virginia rather than the Union, because he 
believed that his state had the first claim upon his 
loyalty. 

The Confederates now pushed north anc^ the 
LTnion troops pushed south, but both were unsuc- 



60 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

cessful. General Lee made a second invasion of 
the North, and in the three-days' Battle of Gettys- 
burg, in Pennsylvania, he was repulsed. On the 
day after this battle, General Grant took Vicks- 
burg in the West, and in a few months the entire 
Mississippi was held by the Union, and the states 
west of it were separated from the rest of the 
Confederacy. 

General Grant was now made Lieutenant General 
in command of all the United States troops. 
General Sherman was sent to subdue the Confed- 
erate forces in northern Georgia, while Grant 
himself should overpower Lee and take Richmond. 
Both succeeded. Sherman made his famous march 
to the sea. A swath sixty miles wide was cut 
through the heart of Georgia by his army, destroy- 
ing railroads and telegraph lines, bridges, build- 
ings, and supplies. He then entered Savannah. 
General Grant was attacking the Confederates 
about Richmond, General Lee was forced to sur- 
render, and the Confederacy had come to an end. 

This is in brief the story of the Civil War on the 
land. The Union navy was as hard at work as the 
army. It was by its help that the Mississippi and 
oth^ rivers were won for the Union. It captured 
forts and seaports and got control of bays all along 



OUR FEDERAL UNION 61 

the coast. One of the most famous naval battles 
was that between the ''Merrimac" — whose name 
the Confederates had changed to "Virginia" when 
they captm-ed it and made it into an ironclad — 
and the ^'Monitor," a new style of boat invented 
by John Ericsson. ''It looks like a cheesebox on a 
raft," declared the sailors when it first appeared; 
but it was a powerful cheesebox, for the "Merri- 
mac," which had crushed one vessel, burned 
another, and was ready to destroy a third, could 
not make any impression upon it. Neither 
''Merrimac'^ nor ''Monitor'^ could hurt the other, 
and after four hours of fighting the ''Merrimac" 
withdrew. The daily papers did not come out in big 
headlines, and few people realized the importance 
of this engagement; but nevertheless it put an end to 
wooden navies and thus changed all naval warfare. 
Another part of the work of the Union navy was 
to blockade the Southern coast and keep away 
supplies. Many other vessels besides warships, 
even tugs and ferryboats, were called upon to 
help, for to blockade a coast as long as ours is no 
small matter. The South was ready to pay any 
price for such articles as medicine, powder, clothes, 
etc., and England and France were in desperate 
need of cotton to keep their mills going. Anyone 



62 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

who could succeed in running the blockade with a 
load of supplies needed by the South and could 
escape with a load of cotton for England was sure 
of making a large sum of money out of the voyage . 
Russia stood firmly by the Union, but there was 
danger that England and France would help the 
Confederates in order to get cotton. President 
Lincoln's ^'Emancipation Proclamation" put an 
end to that. The President is Commander-in- 
chief of the Army and Navy, and in time of war he 
is given far more power than would be proper at 
any other time. President Lincoln declared all 
slaves in the Confederate States to be free. This 
act won friends in Europe, because the masses of 
both the English and the French people, even those 
factory workers who were out of employment for 
lack of cotton, were strongly opposed to slavery. 
Some members of the English Government who 
had favored the Confederacy could now do nothing 
more than to shut their eyes to the fact that 
privateers and blockade runners were being fitted 
out in English ports. These vessels, especially 
the ''Alabama," did so much harm to Union 
shipping that after peace was declared England 
was required to pay a bill of $15,500,000 to the 
United States. This she did within a year. 



OUR FEDERAL UNION 63 

During the Civil War both prices and taxes 
were high. The Government must have money, 
and the only way to borrow it was to pay enough 
interest to induce people to buy Government 
bonds. In 1917 our Government could borrow 
money at three and one-half per cent; but during 
the dark days of the Civil War, when it was possible 
that the Union would be divided and its bonds 
would never be redeemed, the Government had to 
pay on one issue of bonds seven and three-tenths 
per cent interest, and on another six per cent in 
gold, which was at one time worth $2.86 in paper. 
In the North, trade and manufactures were 
prosperous, but in the South matters were far dif- 
ferent. The South had been the field of battle. 
Towns, plantations, and railroads had been des- 
troyed. Horses, cattle, pigs, and chickens had 
disappeared. Thousands of wealthy families had 
lost everything. There was little manufacturing 
to be taxed, and the blockade prevented exporta- 
tion. The Confederacy had to issue an immense 
amount of paper money, and as hope of success 
grew less and less, the value of this paper money 
declined. "I had one new dress during the war," 
said a Southern woman. *Tt was a calico, and it 
cost S600 in Confederate money.'* 



64 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

During the times of ''reconstruction" many 
difficult questions ^rose. The wise brain and kind 
heart that would have solved them could no 
longer be called upon, for, only a few days after 
Lee's surrender. President Lincoln was assassinated 
by a . Southern sympathizer. He was deeply 
mourned by both North and South, for, although 
he had done everything in his power to overcome 
the Confederacy, the South realized that this man 
of tender sympathies and generous heart would 
have been their best friend. 

Out of all this loss had come some great gains. 
Slavery had been abolished forever. The question 
whether a state could leave the Union had been 
settled. All the rest of the world had seen for 
themselves that the United States had "come to 
stay." 



CHAPTER X 
TO THE FAR ^yEST 

There is an interesting map of the United States 
on which an irregular row of stars runs from east to 
west, each marked with a date. The first star is a 
httle way east of Baltimore, and is marked ^^1790." 
The last one is nearly south of the center of In- 
diana, and is marked ''1910." This means that 
in 1790, our center of population was near Balti- 
more, but that it has gradually moved to Indiana. 

To move the center of population even a few 
miles shows that a vast number of people have 
gone to the westward. This emigration began 
away back in colonial times. People often went 
for better land or to get more room. If there was 
any difference of opinion among the people of a 
colony, it was not uncommon for one party to 
leave the settlement and found a new one for 
themselves. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, for 
instance, the governor thought that the govern- 
ment should be in the hands of the wisest of the 
people; but the pastor thought that every man 
ought to have the right to vote. There seems to 
have been no quarrel between the two dignitaries, 

65 



66 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

but the colonists quietly divided, and the pastor 
and his followers marched off with their household 
goods and their cattle to the fertile lands of the 
Connecticut valley, and there founded Hartford, 
thus moving the center of population just a bit 
farther west. 

There was not much pleasure in journeying in 
those days, or indeed for many years after the 
Revolution. What were called roads were often 
deep in dust in dry weather and were swamps in 
wet. Much of the journeying westward was done 
on horseback, although there were sometimes 
stage-coaches to be found, and occasionally a river 
flowed in the right direction and made it possible 
for the emigrant to enjoy all the luxuries of a raft 
or even of some queerly shaped boat. Both by 
land and by water, there was danger of being at- 
tacked by Indians. The red men understood per- 
fectly that the coming of the white settlers would 
drive them from their hunting grounds, and they 
did their best to protect their rights. Sometimes 
a single Indian hidden in a forest shot at the 
passers by on a raft; sometimes whole tribes at- 
tacked again and again the little groups of settlers. 

About the time of the second war with England, 
steamboats began to move up and down some of 



TO THE FAR WEST 67 

the rivers. They were clumsy, awkward craft, 
but people gazed at them with admiration, for they 
could actually sail against the current at a fair 
rate of speed. A few years later, a national road 
was built from Maryland to Wheeling, West Vir- 
ginia. To journey on this was quite the aristocracy 
of traveling, for there were stage-coaches with 
frequent relays of horses, and there were taverns 
along the way, built of logs and often badly crowded, 
but real taverns nevertheless. Wherever any one 
went, families and companies were seen on their 
w^y to make new homes in the West or South. 
This became a much less serious undertaking than 
it had been in earlier years, for the new routes, 
especially the Erie Canal across the State of New 
York, made it so much easier and cheaper for 
Western farmers to get their tools and Eastern 
conveniences. Then, too, between 1830 and 1841 
the first steam railroads appeared, and the cars 
went plunging and jolting along at the dangerous 
rate of eight or ten miles an hour. 

But the enterprising pioneers could not wait for 
railroads. Thousands sought the unknown country 
of Oregon, some journeying by the ''Oregon Trail," 
a rough track from Missouri to the Northwest, 
others saiUng around Cape Horn. The discovery 



68 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

of gold, as has been mentioned, sent thousands to 
California, some by the old routes, others by 
steamer to the Isthmus of Panama, across the 
Isthmus on muleback, and then by steamer to San 
Francisco. A few years later, gold was found in 
Colorado. Another frantic rush began, and within 
two years Denver had become a city. After the 
Civil War, thousands of the returning soldiers took 
up farms in the West or South; but even during the 
war, the Homestead Act passed, which permitted 
a settler to take up one hundred and sixty acres of 
land for a home. If he persevered and cultivated 
it for five years, he might become its owner by the 
payment of a small fee. 

These settlers soon demanded railroads, and the 
old Oregon Trail became useful as a roadbed. By 
1869 there was a railroad and also a telegraph line 
across the American Continent from ocean to 
ocean. Then there was emigration indeed, by 
tens of thousands. Mines were opened, farms 
were cultivated, cities grew up in a night. The 
territories developed rapidly and more and more 
of them began to call for admission to the Union. 
The ^'Great American Desert" of the earlier atlases 
proved to be ready to yield lavish crops as soon as 
irrigation had satisfied its thirst. Fruit and grain 



TO THE FAR WEST ' 69 

and lumber were soon produced on the Pacific Slope 
as well as gold and silver. Commerce with South 
America, Asia, and Australia made a beginning. 
The beauties and the climate of California made it 
the favorite pleasure ground for Eastern people. 

Not very far north of California is Alaska, which 
we bought of Russia soon after the Civil War for 
$7,200,000. A few people grumbled about this 
''extravagance" and declared that the only in- 
habitants of our new territory were seals and polar 
bears. But surely no one need grumble about 
wasting the money of the United States, for in gold 
and furs our ''refrigerator," as some called it, has 
already paid for itself many times over. 

The last large tract of land to be opened to free 
settlement under the Homestead Act was Okla- 
homa, which the Government had bought of the 
Indians. In 1889, it was announced that this 
tract of 40,000 square miles would be open to 
settlers on April 22, at exactly twelve o'clock. 
More than 100,000 people camped close to the 
border of the territory, and the instant that the 
bugle signal was given, they dashed across the 
line to be the first to claim the special places that 
they had selected on the map. In Guthrie, four 
streets were laid out before three o'clock with can- 



70 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

vas shops and offices and a bank. One hour 
later, a newspaper was issued and a city council 
elected. Only eighteen years later, Oklahoma 
was admitted as a state. 

Not all the settlers of the West were native 
Americans by any means. There have been many 
wars in Europe, and people who in this way had 
lost their homes or property or sought to better 
themselves came hopefully across the Atlantic to 
the country that would give them land. In the 
South, it was cheaper for a planter to keep slaves 
than to pay wages to white men, and therefore 
most of these immigrants pushed on to the West or 
North. As steamboat fares grew less, the number 
of immigrants increased, especially if there were 
hard times in Europe, or if the government of any 
European country was oppressive. The number 
of these immigrants grew larger year by year 
until, in 1910, more than a miUion stepped off the 
gangplank into the United States. 

For a long while any one was admitted who chose 
to come, but now we are more careful. We want 
our country to continue to be ''the land of the free 
and the home of the brave," and we are glad to 
welcome people from other countries who wish to 
become loyal citizens. It is not just, however, 



TO THE FAR WEST 71 

to these people to admit criminals or anarchists 
or persons with contagious diseases or those who 
have not money enough to support them until 
they can find work. Such persons are refused 
entrance to our country, and the steamship line 
that brought them over must carry them back free 
of charge. 

This reform was badly needed. Another of 
equal importance was what is known as Civil 
Service Reform. In 1829, an honest, fearless man 
by the name of Andrew Jackson became President. 
Unfortunately, he was as opinionated as he was 
fearless, and if a man did not agree with him he was 
sure that the man was stupid and willful. There 
is an old cartoon of Jackson dressed as a house- 
keeper and brooming a group of men out of the 
kitchen. This shows what he did to the men in 
Government office, for he turned out more than 
one thousand of them, filling their places with 
men of his own political party. Naturally, as 
soon as a President of the opposing party came in, 
^he turned out Jackson's men and put in political 
friends of his own. This was the beginning of what 
is known as the ''spoils system." Up to Jackson's 
time, postmasters, clerks, and other holders of 
minor offices under the Government had been 



72 THE LITIXE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

selected for their ability and had been kept in 
office even if the opposing party came into power. 
This was changed now, and it became the custom 
with each new administration to '^turn the rascals 
out," that is, to discharge those office-holders who 
were of the opposing political party and put in 
those who had helped to elect the new President. 

Such a method of managing any private business 
would certainly be most foolish , and it was equally 
foolish in Government matters. The result was 
that men were often not in office long enough to 
learn how to do their work in the best way. Some 
did not care whether it was well done or not, for 
they knew that they were safe as long as their party 
remained in power, and that when their party went 
out of power they would lose their positions, no 
matter how well they did their work. Another 
great objection to this system was that prominent 
men of the party in power were never free from the 
appeals of persons begging for some position under 
Government. There is a story that when Lincoln 
had the smallpox, he said, ''I have something at 
last that I can give to every office-seeker." In 
1883, a Civil Service Reform Act was passed, re- 
quiring every applicant for a Government position 
to take an examination. From those who stand 



TO THE FAR WEST 73 

well in this examination assistants in Government 
work are chosen, and if such an assistant does his 
work well and behaves himself no one can discharge 
him. Most Government employees are now under 
Civil Service rules. Several states and large 
cities and even public libraries choose workers in a 
similar fashion. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE UNITED STATES BECOMES A WORLD POWER 

In 1607, when the first permanent English settle- 
ment was made in America, the voyage across the 
Atlantic took one hundred and forty-five days, that 
is, thirty times as many as it does today. This 
was the same in effect as if Europe had been thirty 
times as far away as it is. It is no wonder that 
the early settlers felt almost as if they were on a 
distant planet . As years passed , vessels and knowl- 
edge of navigation improved and Europe came 
nearer. In 1860, the ''Great Eastern" sailed from 
England to New York in eleven days. Six years 
later she laid two permanent submarine cables 
from Ireland to Newfoundland. Whether the 
United States wished or not, she was being swiftlj' 
brought into closer and closer connection with the 
other countries of the world. European news only 
a few hours old was served at American breakfast 
tables in the morning paper. Business between 
the two continents increased with ease of com- 
munication. 

Lying to the south of the United States was half 
of our great double continent. A few far-sighted 

74 



A WORLD POWER 75 

men realized a century ago that in the years to come 
our relations with South America would naturally 
become much closer. The wise founder of Girard 
College required in his will that the Spanish lan- 
guage should always be taught in the College, on 
the ground that our commerce would naturally 
extend to the Spanish-speaking countries. About 
the same time a congress was held at Panama, to 
which the United States was invited to send dele- 
gates; but this accomplished nothing of permanent 
value. Most people were satisfied with a small 
exchange of exports and with the requirements of 
the ''Monroe Doctrine," a warning given by 
President Monroe in 1823 that any attempt on the 
part of European nations ''to extend their system 
to any portion of this hemisphere" would be re- 
garded by the United States as an unfriendly act. 

As time passed and the South American countries, 
especially Argentina, Brazil, Chile — the "ABC 
countries" — grew strong and firmly established, 
the protection of the United States was no longer 
needed. What was needed, however, was that the 
people of the Northern and Southern continents 
should learn to know one another better and 
understand, one another's point of view. It was 
hoped that increased acquaintance between them 



76 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

would increase business relations to the gain of 
both, and that in case of any possible future dis- 
agreement between any two of the countries, the 
difficulty might be settled by arbitration. With 
these objects, the Pan-American Congress was 
held in 1889, a meeting of delegates from the 
United States and twenty of the republics of South 
and Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies. 
Since that time, other congresses of the same sort 
have been held. For the use of the Pan-American 
Union one of the most beautiful public buildings 
in the world has been erected in Washington. 

Our relations with South America, especially 
with her western countries, have been made closer 
by the building of the Panama Canal, for which 
we bought a strip of land from the Panama Re- 
public. This was finished in 1914, and is open to 
all nations on equal terms. By striking out the 
long voyage around South America, this canal 
has brought Australia four thousand miles nearer to 
New York City. It has even brought different 
parts of our own country together, and the gold- 
seekers who "rounded the Horn" in 1849 could 
have shortened their voyage by 8500 miles if they 
had waited until 1914. 

One of the main objects of the South American 



A WORLD POWER 77 

Republics in their first Congress had been to form 
a union . against the power of Spain, and some 
members of the United States Congress had then 
objected to our sending delegates lest this should 
involve us in ''entangling alliances." The en- 
tanglements appeared, however, in 1898, even 
without any alliances, when we were forced to 
interfere in behalf of Cuba. 

This island, the 'Tearl of the Antilles," was 
governed by Spain quite in seventeenth century 
fashion, that is, the mother country tried to get as 
much out of the co'ony as possible wthout the least 
regard to its welfare or happiness. The Cubans 
were continually rising against Spanish rule, and 
there was no safety for even the property of 
Americans at such times. Moreover, the kind of 
mosquito whose bite conveys the germs of yellow 
fever flourished in Cuba, and from there epidemics 
of this disease frequently spread to the United 
States. The island needed a thorough cleaning 
up, physically and politically. 

In 1895 the Cubans rose against Spain with more 
determination than ever before. The Spaniards 
shut them up in camps, where thousands died of 
starvation. Our Government appealed to Spain,, 
but nothing was accomplished. Three years later,. 



78 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

our battleship, the ''Maine," lying in the harbor of 
Havana, was blown up. Many believed that 
Spaniards had committed the crime, and ''Re- 
member the Maine!" became the headline of the 
American newspapers and the demand of the 
American people. The United States now recog- 
nized the independence of the island, and declared 
war against Spain. This war lasted only three 
months. Our troops captured Santiago, and our 
naval forces destroyed the Spanish fleet. The 
Spaniards yielded and Cuba was free. Porto Rico, 
another Spanish colony, became a part of the 
United States. 

Before the United States delivered up Cuba to 
the Cubans, a general house-cleaning was held 
under the management of the United States Army, 
and we no longer need to fear the coming of yellow 
fever from its shores. Whether the political 
cleaning would be as successful was a question, for 
the Cubans had had no experience in self-govern- 
ment. They agreed to accept the guardianship 
of the United States in case trouble should arise 
which they could not control. This happened 
once, and our country went to the rescue. 

This war with Spain had results which were 
unthought of when the first gun was fired. At the 



A WORLD POWER 79 

breaking out of hostilities, the FiUpinos, as well 
as the Cubans, were trying to free themselves from 
Spain, and to prevent this, a Spanish fleet was at 
Manila. Commodore, afterwards Admiral, Dewey 
was on the Asiatic coast. He was at once sent to 
Manila, where he destroyed this fleet. With the 
aid of American soldiers the town was captured, 
and the Philippines were then in the hands of the 
United States. The Filipinos wanted a republic, 
but they were by no means prepared for inde- 
pendence. Against their opposition, the United 
States took charge of them, opened libraries and 
schools, and restored order. No promises have 
been made, but it is expected that when they have 
had sufficient preparation for self-government,, 
the United States will withdraw and leave them 
independent. For the surrender of these islands 
we paid Spain $20,000,000. The island of Guam, 
one of the Ladrones, remained in our hands after 
its conquest. It is of value as a station for coal 
and other supplies. 

We were suddenly becoming rich in islands, for 
the Hawaiian group, which had been under our 
protection for some time, had asked to be annexed. 
This was done; and a httle later, the Samoan 
Islands in the South Pacific were divided among 



80 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

England, Germany, and the United States. 
Spain, which had been the discoverer of the West- 
ern World and which had founded its first perma- 
nent European settlements, was no longer the 
possessor of one foot of land on this side of the 
ocean. 

Japan has been our friend ever since the visit of 
Commodore Perry in 1854 opened that country to 
commerce. A new treaty has been made with the 
Japanese with a view to strengthening the old 
friendship. 

With China our connection has of late years be- 
come closer and especially friendly. China is large 
but not strong in a military way, and a few years 
ago some of tlie European powers sought to get 
possession of part of her territory. By the efforts 
of the United States, they were persuaded to allow 
the ''open door" policy to prevail and thus invite 
the trade of all nations. Before this was settled, 
a powerful society, the ''Boxers," set out to kill all 
foreigners in the land. By the aid of soldiers 
from the United States, Japan, England, France, 
and Russia, the Boxers were overcome. It was 
plain that the Chinese Government had made no 
effort to protect foreigners, and China was forced 
to pay an indemnity of $33,000,000 to pay the cost 



A WORLD POWER 81 

of the expedition to restore order. Our share of 
this indemnity was so much more than the expedi- 
tion had cost us, that our Government returned 
$13,000,000 of the sum. China's acknowledg- 
ment was most graceful, for she replied that 
this money would be used for the education of 
Chinese students in America. ' These students will 
carry home with them a knowledge of American 
ways and ideals, and thus their education in this 
country will do more than treaties to strengthen 
the friendship between the two countries. 

So it is that the United States, which, separated 
by two oceans from the Eastern Hemisphere, had 
hved in ''splendid isolation" from the troubles of 
the rest of the world, was now brought into closer 
connection with the other nations and must hence- 
forth share their responsibilities. 



CHAPTER XII 

OUR COUNTRY TODAY 

In 1914, save for difficulties arising from lawless- 
ness in Mexico, the United States was at peace 
with all the world. We were strong and busy and 
prosperous. Of course even the least thoughtful 
among us could see that more than one problem 
would have to be solved before many years had 
passed; but we expected to be able to solve them. 

Suddenly, early in August, 1914, the newspapers 
announced war in Europe. Austria-Hungary, 
supported by Germany, had attacked Serbia, and 
German forces, in spite of treaties and agreements, 
had marched into Belgium and were aiming at 
Paris. France, Russia, and England, unprepared 
for war, were hastily calling their troops together 
to defend France. Little by little it became clear 
that Germany was plotting to dominate the world, 
that she had for many years been preparing for a 
war to bring this about. She had made no secret 
of her intentions, but few people had looked upon 
them as more than dreams. 

As the "f rightfulness" of the Germans in war 
became known and there was discovered in them 

82 



OUR COUNTRY TODAY 83 

a foe with neither honor nor mercy, people began 
to reaUze the awful danger of permitting one man 
to hold the power to bring such agony upon the 
countries of the world. The war was no longer a 
contest among a group of European countries, but 
a world struggle between autocracy and democ- 
racy. ' The question whether the people of a land 
should rule themselves, or whether the will and 
ambition of one man or a certain class of men 
should rule them, must be answered for all time. 
One country after another entered the war. A 
few of the smaller states of Europe, helpless in 
their weakness, remained neutral. For nearly 
three years the United States held itself neutral, 
with an occasional protest against the behavior of 
Germany. During that time, Germany sank the 
great passenger steamer, the ^'Lusitania," with 
American citizens on board. She sank Red Cross 
vessels, she fired upon helpless lifeboats, she carried 
on a course of rank piracy, and she broke ruth- 
lessly the international laws of mercy and decency 
in warfare, laws which she herself had helped to 
make. It was discovered that the United States 
was full of her spies, and of persons whom she 
paid to blow up our factories, to bring about 
I ctrikes, and to endeavor by every possible means 



84 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

to arouse dissension among our people. It was 
time for us to enter the war. Thoughtless people 
said, ''Why should we fight unless the Germans 
attack us?" Those who thought said, *'We ought 
to have been helping long before now.'' 

. The United States entered the war, and entered 
to win. No money was spared. A general draft 
filled up the ranks of her troops, and ''intensive 
training" at Plattsburg and elsewhere helped to 
provide officers. Many cantonments were con- 
structed, real cities capable of housing 40,000 men 
apiece. The lives of the men were insured, the 
best of food was provided, their health was care- 
fully looked after, books and amusements were 
furnished. Never before was an army so well 
cared for. 

Germany had not expected any armed interfer- 
ence of importance on the part of the United 
States, for she had not thought it possible for 
troops to be trained and carried across the ocean in 
time to be of service to the Allies; but while her 
people were still being assured that victory was 
within their grasp, English and American convoys 
were guarding more than 2,000,000 American 
soldiers from German submarines on their voyage 
toward the front. Everybody knows what kind 



OUR COUNTRY TODAY 85 

of soldiers we sent to France, how their fresh 
strength helped and encouraged the weary armies 
that had borne the struggle for four long years, 
and how at the Marne and on the Hindenburg line 
and in the Argonne Forest our young army played 
a brilliant part in the final campaign that broke the 
German power. Now we are hoping that in all the 
days that are to be, the world will never again be 
plunged into such horrors as it has just endured. 
Such is the record of the United States since the 
days when her people were gathered into little 
colonies scattered along the Atlantic coast. Our 
numbers have grown from a few thousand to 
105,000,000. Our territory has increased by pur- 
chase, rarely by conquest, until we now hold a 
broad sweep of country from ocean to ocean. We 
are rich in lands at the Far North. We have 
treaties of friendship with many nations, and we 
are now enemies of none. In the Great War we 
have stood side by side with the peoples that love 
honor and freedom, helping to save from a very 
great disaster the Old World from which the 
fathers or forefathers of all of us came. England 
and France, with whom we fought in days gone 
by, are our warm friends. When we entered the 
World War, England flung out the Stars and 



86 THE LITTLE BOOK OF OUR COUNTRY 

Stripes from the Tower of Westminster Palace, 
where none but an EngUsh flag had ever floated 
before that day. In the Cathedral of St. Paul, 
four thousand people sang the ''Star-Spangled 
Banner," without a thought that it was written to 
celebrate our repulse of an English fleet. And 
when the time for peace rejoicings had come, then, 
in St. Thomas's Church in Washington, the 
city whence a President of the United States had 
once fled from British fire-brands, the national 
hymns of the Allies were sung, and the walls 
re-echoed with 

''God save our gracious King, 
Long live our noble King,'* 

no one remembering that for sixty years the lines 
were chanted in honor of our old acquaintance, 
George the Third. We have proved that we can 
fight, and fight hard, when we must; but that no 
motive save self-defense and the winning of free- 
dom and justice for ourselves or for others will lead 
us to take up arms. We have a right to be proud 
of our country and to look forward to her future 
with joyful expectation. 



I 



140 



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